KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Several parents from Santa Clarita have begun a petition to keep Sequoia School at its small, Saugus-based campus after Hart District officials decided to move the non-traditional school to Castaic High School.
During the spring semester, officials with the William S. Hart Union High School District made the decision to relocate Sequoia School from it’s small location off of Centre Pointe Parkway in Saugus to the district’s newest campus: Castaic High School.
“It will give students an opportunity to interact with general education students should they want it,” said Dave Caldwell, spokesman for the district.
Formerly known as Sequoia Charter School, the non-traditional school provides for 55 students in grades 7-12, and is designed to “address the needs of students experiencing significant social-emotional/behavioral difficulties which adversely impact their ability to make educational progress in a comprehensive campus setting,” according to the school’s website.
The students are supported by five academic staff on-site, as well as five staff therapists, who are supervised by a licensed clinical Program Coordinator. They work together to provide the students Educationally Related Intensive Counseling Services (ERICS).
“This team provides interventions as needed in the milieu as well as weekly individual, family, and group psychotherapy,” the school site reads. “Class sizes are kept small with increased staff-to-student ratios.”
It is this aspect of small class sizes that has some parents concerned over the school’s move to Castaic High.
“They are at Sequoia because they need Sequoia with its small embracing environment, caring staff, administrators, teachers, ERICS therapists, and peers,” writes Dana Bradford, who started a petition to keep Sequoia at it’s Saugus location. “The kids thrive in the small community which Sequoia offers.”
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Bradford is concerned that moving the school to a large, comprehensive campus will have a negative impact on the “social-emotional component that is layered into the academics at Sequoia in conjunction with the confidentiality of ERICS therapy.”
“They are not at Sequoia because they are learning deficient,” she wrote. “They are there because of severe emotional issues and socialization challenges and a traditional comprehensive campus does not work for this group.”
As of Tuesday morning, the petition had acquired over 300 signatures.
However, district officials have assured parents that all of the teachers and therapists from the original location would be transferring over to the school’s new home at Castaic High.
“We are creating a very safe environment for Sequoia students,” Caldwell said. “It’s going to be the same level of social and emotional support.”
The decision to move the school was made with the intent to give Sequoia students who wanted to participate in extracurricular activities such as sports or clubs the opportunity to do so. However, Caldwell stressed that Sequoia students would not be forced to interact with general education students if they did not wish to.
“If they don’t want to interact with the general education students, they don’t have to,” he affirmed.
To learn more about Sequoia School, click here.
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I’m against it too! I have worked with this population for 13 years. Parents have praised us and cried over what our program has done for these kids and for their families. The Superintendents have praised our team for its successes. We made a difference! I strongly believe the move will be detrimental to the program, a program so needed in our community. Don’t change or try to fix something that has been working. On an added note, take care of the good employees doing the right thing so that you can keep them. Spoken from the heart and the experience.
As a parent of a student that this school has saved, I am also against the move. If we want extra curricular activities for our students, we will take care of that. These kids find solace and support on the Sequoia campus. They learn to lead without the peering eyes of the general education students. They DO NOT NEED that extra stress added to their already stressed out lives. My son was at a Special ED program on a General Ed campus. That led to two hospitalizations, because as much as you try and tell me that they “don’t have to interact with the other students on campus” it happens and he was bullied simply because he was special Ed. He is 16 now and able to handle himself but I wouldn’t want that to happen to him. He found life when he was transferred to Sequoia. This whole change has brought unneeded stress on an already stress filled year. I hope the school district will change their minds. Don’t fix what isn’t broke and what was working so well.
I have an idea. Just out of respect, poll the students. Include them in this decision. I also worked at Sequoia. These kids hate change. Just finding out they have to move to another location is not going to be good for them mentally. Being at Sequoia is like being in a big blended family. Don’t move it to a bigger place with more kids. It didn’t work at Hart with the TLC program before it went to Placerita. Plus the commute to Castaic for working parents is going to be brutal. Sequoia needs to stay put.
I have an idea. Out of respect, why not poll the students? I also worked at Sequoia. It is like being in a big, blended family. Moving it to another location with more kids isn’t going to be good for these students mental well being. They hate change. It didn’t work at Hart with the TLC program that is now at Placerita. Plus the Castaic commute for working parents? No. Too much anxiety all the way around. It’s great that Castaic will have it’s own high school but please don’t put our delicate children over there. Sequoia works, it isn’t broken. Leave it alone. Please.
I am reading that the decision to change the location of Sequoia school was made to accommodate students concerning extracurricular activities. How insulting to parents that you would use that lame excuse!!
Would you please speak the truth??
It is clear that the school is regarded as successful by parents and staff. The students there have been well served and in closing it, the students now, and in the future, are at risk. Please reverse this decision.
I am against the move. My daughters has been at Golden Valley sped program for four years. Next year she’ll go to TLC. Typical high school is extremely stressful to these students. They hate change they need routine I vote for keeping it where it’s at. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!
I’m the mother of a wonderful teen in the spectrum. He has strugle all his schools years because any program had being the right one for him, that is what the school distric had say to me everytime they toss my boy from one school to another. And I say toss, because after so many changes, looks like my son had been played like a pin-pon ball, if he becomes a lit more challenging, then, lets move it to another school. I cant even call the number of times he had been move to different schools, and I’m talking about a boy, who is 100% functional, but his emmotional side is very vulnerable, so he has extreamelly anxiety, depression, insecurity etc, and every time he faces a change he goes back to square 1. I had trust the distric with the descicions they suggested to me in every IEP, because they are the professionals than should know what is the best setting for my son. . They finally found the right setting for my son, the cahnge was working, slowly, but finally I felt he will be ok. We hit some walls, but my son was feeling better, baby steps, but he was willing to try. He was placed in Sequoia charter school, that is a Small setting school, few students, and all support than the kids who attent need to be able to function in society.
For this kids, is very important to find the courage, confidence, security, safety, to walk in an environment full of people, they hide, they feel judge, its hard for my son to live in a society. We live indoors!! he goes out for therapy’s, and school, that is all. At Sequoia. he finally feeling secure, confident, he was trying to be more social, etc. finally I could see some happines on his face, it was still hard to cope with the change, but he was willing to keep going. We all know that because quarantine, all schools had to be close, but we knew that eventually we will go back to Sequoia, even Jonathan , my son, was expecting to go back, because he had miss his school, ( belive me, that is a huge feeling for him). So the problem now, and without consultation, the district decided to close that school and move all the kids to a huge regular high school, we all are devastated, and we aren’t the only ones, Sequoia familly , parents and students, at this momnets, we are panicking, because we know what this means, we know the struggles, fears, lost of confidence, insecurity, suicidal thoughts, increasing of med doses to help cope with the anxiety, sleepiness, tantrums, etc. etc. That we are goingnto face and see out kida go trough, We don’t want for our kids to be toss to another place, we fear, we are scare, we want to keep moving forward. Please???? We want Sequoia school to keep being the right place they promise to our kids. Our kids, have the right to an education, and is not their fault, they need special settings to be able to survive in our society. We need help to save our kids school.
Thank you